Text: Peter Johansson
Editing: Christer Lundstedt
Photos: Christer Lundstedt, Peter Johansson
Videos: Christer Lundstedt
Thursday 21st of April
08.30 Góðan morgun. We have slept well here at Lokk-Inn Apartments in Norðdepil. There are not many sounds in these neighbourhoods that can interfere with a night's sleep. It's time to plan a little more. Christer has a basic plan for the coming day, the only day when we have our own car from morning to evening.
09.36 It is possible to have a self-composed breakfast. It may not be buffet style, but it's good.
10.12 The thermos is filled with hot water. Instant coffee and mugs are packed. Soon we will leave our apartment and our house. It is important to have a thermos with water and coffee powder. You never know when the thirst for coffee will kick in.
10.24 An arrow sign just said Viðareiði. We just passed a cattle grid. It is, in simple terms, a grid located on the road. Its task is to prevent livestock from passing. We are on our way to the most northern part of the Faroe Islands. We go there first and then turn south again.
10.33 We are met by cold wind, a seagull and wonderful views. We made our first stop of the day in a parking lot. I sit on a stone bench at a stone table and write this. To the east, the island of Fugloy is partially hidden by a low cloud. To the west is Villingardalsfjall, a mountain on the Faroe Islands northernmost tip of Enniberg. At the far end of the cape is also the highest vertical coastal cliff in the world, 754 meters above sea level.
10.45 It's time for another bench break, this time one made out of wood. We stayed in the village of Viðareiði. The roof of Viðareiði Kirkja is being renovated. There are steep cliffs by the sea. Soon we will continue from here.
11.02 We just made a stop along an uphill road along the Hvannasund strait. The stop was made to ask three Danish tourists if they needed help. The exhaust system of their Faroe Islands registered car had come loose. They had simply tied it up with a strap and did not consider themselves in need of our help. They would return to Viðareiði if it got worse.
13.12 We went back down through the small planted forest area, Viðarlundin in Kunoy. We are now sitting in the sun on a bench with a table. With us are classics such as my thermos, instant coffee, mugs and a forest stick to stir the coffee with. How fortunate that they planted a forest here a hundred years ago. Otherwise, it would have been difficult to find the forest stick.
17.31 Calmly and quietly we travel back north towards our home. It has been a wonderful day with beautiful weather and beautiful views.
Friday 22nd of April
The beautiful road on Viðoy.
Christer tries to take photos of Enniberg.
Viðareiði Kirkja is taken care of.
Beautiful views from Viðareiði.
Christer in Viðareiði.
Fishing activities in Hvannasund.
We have arrived to Kunoy.
A sheep and a beautiful view of Kunoy.
A sheep on Kunoy. Kalsoy can be seen in the background.
Roberth tests a sheep house.
A family of sheep wonders what Roberth is doing.
The long awaited coffee break.
Viðarlundin í Kunoy, a small manmade forest.
The beautiful village of Saksun on Streymoy.
A waterfall in Saksun.
The traditional houses in Dúvugarðar, Saksun.
Saksunar kirkja, built 1858.
A view towards the bridge at Oyrarbakki.
Dinner is being prepared.
09.00 We took the opportunity to sleep longer this Friday. Tomorrow will be a very early morning so it is important to take the chance to sleep when the opportunity arises. Today we will mostly transport ourselves to the airport to return the car and check in at the last accommodation of the trip. We hope to see some new and exciting things along the way.
09.46 Soon most of what we have to do is done here in the apartment. The pace is at a generally low level. 10.15 We have had some great time here in our apartment and if you visit the Faroe Islands, this accommodation can be recommended. Lokk-Inn Apartments offers good standard and the surrounding nature is magnificent. 10.36 Now the three of us have checked out and on our way to new things. The apartment is left unlocked until the owners have time to pass by. Here you trust your fellow human beings. We have announced Booking.com that we have checked out. 11.28 We have made a stop along a local, narrow road along the fjord Funningsfjørður on Eysturoy. The road here was the familiar route 10 past Klaksvík, Leirvík and so on. We almost got tired of it despite the tunnels and beautiful views. 11.47 We are down by the sea in the village of Funningur. Here the sun shines on the houses and the brown church with its grassy roof. It's a great day today with sun and clear blue sky. 11.56 Here in the village, stress is probably an unknown phenomenon. Down at the harbour, an elderly man is painting something. Outside a house, some geese wander around with their yellow goslings. The village has only 47 inhabitants. We have seen some of them. 12.20 On a few stones on the side of the road, between the Faroe Islands highest mountain Slættaratindur and an incredible view of Funningur we sit and drink coffee. I have drunk worse coffee and had more boring views. There are few coffee stops that top this.
Red light at the first tunnel of the day.
A sheep welcomes us to Funningur.
Funnings kirkja.
Roberth in Funningur.
A goose family in Funningur.
The fantastic view during our coffee break.
12.34 We had to force ourselves away from the wonderful view to travel further. At high altitude we have now chosen the right option where the road split.
12.50 We are in the village of Gjógv on the north of Eysturoy. Mary, S BÆNK 2005is written on the bench I'm currently sitting on. It's the Danish Crown Princess's bench. On the 22nd of June 2005, Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary visited this village. Two elderly residents had the idea to place a bench with a magnificent view of the sea. Mary dedicated it and since then it has had the name of Mary's BÆNK. There are spectacular views here too. Some white birds live, nest in a vertical cliff wall opposite us. Gjógv means gorge and refers to the natural formation here. 13.13 We have left Gjógv and now drive past the Faroe Islands highest mountain Slættaratindur towards Eiði on the other side of the island. This road is apparently difficult to drive as there is usually fog here at high altitude. Today there is no problem. The sun shines from a blue sky. 13.32 The car stands still. I sit on a worn wooden bench. A sheep can be heard. Into the sea in front of me is a rock wall. The place where we stopped is a vantage point towards two rock formations in the sea, Risin and Kellingin. There are binoculars here for those who want to see them better. 14.12 The journey continues. We have left the scenic areas behind us and are now aiming for Tórshavn where we hope to have a late lunch or early dinner. After seeing two Russian ships in the vicinity of Runavík, we are now heading for another tunnel. 14.17 We drove wrong and ended up in Toftir. Now we are back at the tunnel opening and make another attempt. 14.23 What a tunnel! Suddenly, even a roundabout appeared under the land and sea. After 11 kilometres in the dark, we are again in daylight. We have travelled through the Eysturoy Tunnel, a tunnel that was built between 2016 and 2020. It is also the most expensive tunnel to drive through. 14.48 We parked down in the harbour of Tórshavn. Here in the city, after some searching, we have found ourselves at Kafé Kaspar (https://en.kaspar.fo), a restaurant we heard a lot about in the radio commercials during our car trips in recent days.
Gjógv.
The gorge that gave the village its name.
One of the more long-haired inhabitants of Gjógv.
We look at the blue waters of the Atlantic.
Risin and Kellingin.
Someone is watching us.
15.53 There were some expensive burgers here at Kafé Kaspar but we really needed food. There was not much to choose from in terms of food at this time of day. Simpler pizzerias and the like do not open until 17.00. After we made the necessary breakfast purchases at the supermarket FK, the car will now be allowed to come home to the airport again.
16.34 Roberth has just refuelled 31 litres at the petrol station Magn in Miðvágur. The car trip will soon be over. 17.31 It went fine to leave the car in a parking lot. It went so and so to leave the car key in a box near the closed office. It was all the more difficult to check in at Hotel Vágar (https://hotelvagar.fo) right outside the airport. The instruction given over a door phone was to use the I-pad to enter the email address to get the room number and door code. It didn't work. Contact via a help phone went better. We are now in room 102. It's like it is with unmanned hotels. They are good at charging a lot for the rooms here but they do not have any staff on site. 19.23 It is a quiet last evening here in the Faroe Islands. Christer has checked us in on the flight tomorrow and is now sharing the boarding passes. On the TV there are summaries of various football matches from the Faroe Islands League. 19.31 We are waiting for the plane from Copenhagen to land soon. It was the only plane to arrive all night. We want to film the landing because we have the perfect view of the runway from our room. A yellow car just drove off at high speed along the runway. Then two bangs were heard. Did they scare away birds? 19.37 The plane, a small one, has landed. It's probably the one we're going to fly with tomorrow morning. 20.46 The last supper in the Faroe Islands is over. We have had a small buffet picked up from various things that we have left from the apartment and previous snacks. I think it's going to be coffee. 22.02 The news talks about the war in Ukraine and Sunday's presidential election in France. Outside, our last full day in the Faroe Islands is coming to an end. 23.07 It is warm in our room. In fact, the whole hotel seems to imitate a sauna. In order to have a pleasant sleep, we have decided to open a window.
The underwater roundabout in the Eysturoyartunnilin.
Roberth and Peter are visiting Kafé Kaspar.
Christer watches Faroese football on TV. Peter and Roberth look at their phones.
Roberth has jumped out of our room and is walking barefoot in the grass for a while.
Saturday 23rd of April
06.25 The early morning of the going home-day is here. Today, the travel company will split up. We travel together to Kastrup Airport outside Copenhagen. After that, it is basically on our own by train in different directions. During the night, someone closed our window. Nobody remembers who. Maybe a ghost?
06.45 Now it's time to get out of the hotel and walk the short distance to the airport. 06.52 Among the first things we saw when we came here to the Faroe Islands were some grazing sheep. It feels right that the last one will also be a sheep and her lamb. They stood between the hotel and the airport terminal. The name Faroe Islands comes from the word "faar oy" which means "sheep islands". 07.10 Our luggage is tagged and ready to be dropped on the baggage carousel. Now we just wait here at the airport Vágar. 07.33 It went well to drop our luggage and also with check-in and security for our part. Now that we've done a little shopping in the duty free shop, we'll wait a while longer. 07.58 An Airbus A320 CEO from the Faroe Islands airline Atlantic Airways, a new airline for us, will take us from the island of Vágar to the island of Amager outside Copenhagen where Kastrup Airport is located. Soon I will change the time to Danish time.
Hotel Vágar, expensive but very close to the airport.
Sheep outside the airport.
Time to get on board.
CHANGING TIME ZONE
09.28 We have taken off and the pilot has, hopefully, taken aim at Denmark. On the folded table in front of me I read sita íbundin and bjargingarvestur er under stólasetrinum. Always wear a seat belt and a life jacket under the seat. Good to know. There is water under us. 10.23 It is a quiet and pleasant flight. There was no food or alcohol, but we had coffee. It's important.DENMARK
11.31 Now we are back on one of the runways at Kastrup. Now we just have to wait to get out and then grab our luggage.
12.06 It was a long wait at the baggage claim but it was worth it. All three got what they dropped on the carousel in the Faroe Islands. 12.20 We are currently waiting for order 6349. We ordered a hamburger from Burger King in Terminal 3. I think the receipt we received is almost half a meter long. Should it really be necessary? At the tables next to us are some Norwegian young people with mental disabilities. We are starting to see a trend. We had similar company at Kafé Kaspar in Tórshavn yesterday. 12.41 Another lunch is swallowed. Another visit to Burger King is done. Another hamburger meal has been consumed on this trip. There's been a lot of that kind of food. 13.16 Christer and I have followed Roberth's example and downloaded the SJ application. It is a convenient way to, among other things, get your ticket. Now we sit outside, enjoy the sunshine and drink coffee in front of terminal 3. Now we will kill time before our different trains depart.
A really long receipt from Burger King.
Terminal 3 at Kastrup Airport.
14.23 In a few minutes Christer rolls off on his train journey. He's going to celebrate his father's 80th birthday tomorrow. His journey goes from Kastrup to Norrköping and from there he changes to Nyköping. Roberth must somehow get to Malmö. He has a ticket that starts there. I'm waiting for the next train to Stockholm that leaves from Kastrup.
14.43 Roberth is soon on his way to Malmö. However, we will meet again when my train reaches Malmö. We take the same train from Malmö to Stockholm. 16.19 Within fifteen minutes, a quarter of an hour, my train to Stockholm is here. There it will be a change to the night train to hopefully Örnsköldsvik. The number of my train is one with Duved as the final destination. It is the train that will take Roberth to Jämtland. 16.37 I'm on my way, on the track towards Sweden. This is the second time in my life that I go by train to my home country.SWEDEN
16.59 The train has now arrived in Malmö. If all goes well, Roberth boards for his onward journey to Stockholm.
17.35 Roberth and I have been reunited. Before he got on this train, he saw a person being thrown off another train. However, it was not a dwarf this time. We are now in the bistro for coffee. 18.03 Now I have knowledge. Both Roberth and I should go home with the same train. My wagon and probably others with it change to some other train set in Sundsvall.
Roberth and Christer enjoy the spring sun outside Kastrup Airport.
It´s finally spring!
20.13 Christer has arrived in Oxelösund and his father's apartment. He will stay there until Monday when he travels north towards Sundsvall. Roberth and I are back in the bistro. This time for dinner and beer.
21.08 We will soon be in Stockholm. If all goes well, we can go straight to the next train. 21.57 We are in Stockholm and at track 10. This is where our train will come. It has been a lovely Easter trip to Copenhagen and the Faroe Islands, filled with surprises and beautiful views. I am glad that the trip was completed. It wasn't much fun when a pre-planned trip had to be cancelled due to the pandemic two years ago. Now the journey will be ended with a night train. It is something we have gone with before on the documented trips but actually never in Sweden. 22.38 On the way to my wagon I was accompanied by a young lady. She recognized me as her teacher but couldn't figure out when and where. With joint efforts, we came to the conclusion that it was at Hållänget school 18 years ago. Her name is Angelica Nyberg. Now the train departs. 22.54 I have made my bed here in the couchette train car. The conductor has just informed me that no one else will enter the compartment during the journey. I say thank you for that and go to sleep.
You can see 152 photos from April 21 in this photoalbum.
You can see 100 photos from April 22 in this photoalbum.
You can see 25 photos from April 23 in this photoalbum.